What is 'Self and Value-clarity'? || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2015)
Questioner: Sir, what is the exact definition of Self and Value-clarity?
Speaker: You want me to talk on Self, value and clarity?
Questioner: Yes sir.
Speaker: Self means who you really are, as simple as that. Self means me, I. So, why is it necessary to talk of the Self? It is because we are often confused about the Self. We wear so many fake selves, fake identities, not necessarily to deceive somebody. Sometimes because we are simply ignorant, that the Self gets hidden. And that is no fun.
To keep living without even knowing, who is living? So, who am I if all these influences are not there? Influences do not do me any good. They are like a load, I have to carry them, I have to maintain them and I have to invest in them. All these masks that I am wearing are all right till a point. And after that they just start suffocating me. So, one needs to put down the masks. One needs to come to his real face. That is why one needs to talk of the Self? The Self is your real face. Does your real face have some value or you are afraid that it is so ugly that it must be hidden?
It’s not ugly at all. All of us are pretty beautiful beings. In fact the masks are ugly, though we paint them, decorate them, maintain them. Now, why would one hide his nice, beautiful face beneath the masks? Because the mind is stuffed with knowledge.
